1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a windshield wiper, and more particularly to an attachable wiper assembly for a windshield.
2. Related Art
Motorcycles can be vulnerable to extreme weather conditions including rain. When a motorcycle rider encounters rainy conditions, looking through the windshield becomes difficult, if not impossible. Bad visibility obviously presents a serious safety problem. Accordingly, the rider typically must pull over and wait for the rain to stop. Alternatively, the rider may continue riding by looking over the top of the windshield as is recommended by most motorcycle manufacturers. Unfortunately, looking over the top of the windshield only transfers the visibility problem from the windshield to the rider's visor, glasses or goggles. By keeping sight through the windshield, rather than over it, most of the rain is avoided on the rider's glasses.
Generally, windshield wipers are not seen on motorcycles. First, motorcycles are the only licensed vehicles that are not required by law to be equipped with windshield wipers. Accordingly, if not required to do so, most riders will not use a windshield wiper despite the safety advantages. Second, the esthetics of a windshield wiper presents an issue. Most motorcycle riders do not like the looks of their motorcycles being altered by the presence of a permanently mounted windshield wiper.
Some types of windshield wipers are known in the prior art, but they unfortunately do not meet all of the safety concerns involved with windshield wipers as well are unsightly. For example, many motorcycle windshield wipers are permanently attached and require holes to be drilled in the motorcycle. Other examples include the Le Wipe, which is a hand operated wiper that requires the rider to remove his hand from the handlebar to operate, thus producing a safety hazard by distracting the driver. Additionally, the wiper obstructs the rider's view through and over the windshield. There is also a potentially dangerous situation where the unit can unexpectedly dislodge from the windshield and fall off. A safety lanyard is attached to the wiper assembly to catch the falling unit.
Another example of a motorcycle windshield wiper is provided in the MIT publication “Design of a Modular Motorcycle Windshield Wiper”. The horizontal wiper blade moves up and down vertically along the windshield. This action captures water behind the blade on the upward stroke then releases that captured water on the downward stroke effectively nullifying its effectiveness. Moreover, motorcycle windshields have more horizontal curvature than other vehicle windshields. The blade of the MIT device would not properly conform to the motorcycle windshield curvature since wiper blades are made to run on the vertically flat surface rather than the horizontally curved surface. Due to the vertical action of the wiper blade, the geometry of the wiped surface further reduces the field of view through the windshield. The MIT design also does not incorporate the ability to vary the speed of the wiper for different rain conditions.
A need remains for a motorcycle windshield wiper that satisfies both the safety and esthetic concerns with motorcycle windshield wipers. A further need remains for an attachable and removeable wiper for any type of windshield, including motorcycle, boats, recreational vehicles, etc.
Examples of known prior art devices are described in the references listed below. “Design of a Modular Motorcycle Windshield Wiper” June 2010 Robert Allen Michael Boyd—MIT “Le Wipe”<http:www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=windshield+wipers>
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